You too can make money off Comic-Con. First, buy a pass for as many days as you can stand. If you have industryconnections, get a pass for Wednesday (preview night), as that’s when a lot of valuable schwag gets thrown around.

Next, uh, attend The Con (duh). Bring a huge backpack. Get there EARLY. Have your grabby-grabby hands ready. And Go For It. I’m not even going to cover the stuff you could make money on buying and reselling, as you would need some level of expertise for that; I’m just talking about the free stuff. Some measure of common sense is helpful here: Focus your energies on promotional items for upcoming blockbusters, popular video games, and the like. You may have to stand in line for hot items. Don’t neglect the promo bags, and don’t use them to carry your stuff – they too have resale value. Many people go to signings, and ask for sketches; I think it’s kinda crass and lowball to sell a sketch made personally for you, as opposed to mass-marketed promo crap, which is clearly meant for just this.

If you have (or can make) friends working booths, they can be another source of goodies. See what they’re giving away and get extras for trading. I managed to walk away with seven “Sith Happens” t-shirts by trading Yu-Gi-Oh! shirts and the like; I later sold them for an average of $70 apiece…this went some way towards appeasing my angst at being away from home in the duckpond known as downtown San Diego for a week.

The crush of humanity, the freezing air conditioning, the absence of daylight for five solid days, what roninspoonhas called “the stench of fandom,” the heavy heavy drinking…. Comic-Con would truly suck except for the blessedly high level of ambient nerdiness. My booth-partner was resorting to hijinx like wedging a beercap over his eye and popping it out at me, then yelling, “Where’s my contact lens?” as he ducked under the table for a swig off his beer. I started yelling at people in costumes to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and when they obeyed, I’d add, “TO THE DEATH!” -–Just to touch on the tip of things. It’s a long goddamn con. Make sure it’s worth your while.